Malta and Gozo

We traveled through Malta about a year ago and promised ourselves we would return for a proper visit. It is a beautiful place for certain with dramatic coast lines and colorful sights. Malta's location in the middle of the Mediterranean has made it strategically important to many historical powers through time including times where it was ruled by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Sicilians, Spanish, Knights of St John, French, and the British...now that is a bunch of history.

During our visit to Malta we explored great little fishing villages, wonderful coastlines, mountain top cities and some beautiful countryside. We rented a car so that we could explore at our own pace and found that driving on this island presented some challenges but we are happy to report that we managed just fine. Malta is a welcoming place with warm and friendly people, great food and lots of colorful sights. Needless to say we had a great time.

we found a very colorful fishing fleet lives here

Nothing says Malta like a traditional fishing village with an abundance of signature brightly colored fishing boats. We walked through the fish market and enjoyed some of the offerings. 

Port of Gozo

We took a ferry from the main island to the nearby island of Gozo where we took a coach through the countryside and then boarded a small boat to explore limestone caves and ventured out into the sea and along the cliffs.

exiting the passage/cave through the cliffs

We really enjoyed our explore of the coastline where we jumped on a small boat and explored many limestone caves along the dramatic cliffs. Majestic!

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Some of the sights on Gozo with its own fortified city on the mountain top.

The walled City of Mdina, the Silent City

Back on the main island and high up in the hills we visited the fortified city of Mdina and the adjoining town of Rabat. This was the capital city of the island through the medieval times. The city was founded by the Phoenician settlers and then taken over by the Romans. Mdina was the center of the Maltese nobility and religious authorities after the capital was moved. It is nicknamed the Silent City.

St Pauls Cathedral

A parade and the beautiful cathedral in Valetta, the current capital city of Malta. 

The Catacombs of St Paul and the Church of St Paul and St Paul's Grotto in Rabat

The Church of St Paul in Rabat is built above a natural cave called a grotto. This is where it is believed that St Paul lived for three months while on the island of Malta. There is an elaborate entrance built above the cave now and a monument to St Paul.

Nearby to the church are the catacombs of St Paul. We spent a full afternoon going underground and climbing through the catacombs. A little spooky but very interesting.

Budapest

The Hungarian Parliament

As spring is approaching we were able to take a short holiday and traveled to explore Budapest along with its many historical sites, friendly people and unique cuisine. We found it to be warm and welcoming and we had a great time walking about meeting and talking with the local Hungarian people as we went. We really enjoyed the folk music and dancing of the Gypsy artists and, wow, is the food ever good...Goulash like none we have ever tasted along with very fine Hungarian wine.

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. It traces its roots back to a settlement in the 1st century. The city did not get its current identity until 1873 when Buda and Obuda on the west bank of the Danube river were united with Pest on the east bank to form a unified city. It has a long and most interesting history including settlement by the Romans and found itself on the wrong side of the second world war as Hungary was a member of the Axis powers. A monument stands on the Danube riverside today depicting shoes from some of the many Hungarian Jews whose lives were taken during the occupation. From the start of the German occupation in 1944 Jews and Roma were deported to Auschwitz and between 450,000 and 606,000 Hungarian Jews and 28,000 Hungarian Roma were murdered. A dark time for sure. Today, Budapest is a vibrant place reflecting its people and a culture of family values.

This is a big place and things are spread out so we combined our walking with a few strategic cab rides. We found the cab drivers are also great ambassadors for the city filling us in on where to go. We had a great time walking the hills of the Buda side up to the Buda Castle, Mathias Church, Fishermans Bastion and the old town and then back across the Szechenyi Chain Bridge to the Hungarian Parliament and then a nice walk down to the Great Market Hall for some shopping, Budapest style. We also had a visit to a few of the geothermal spas and Heroes' Square.

Views from
Fishermans Bastion

Hungarian Parliament 

Grand Stairs

Honor Guard

The Shoes on the Danube Bank is a memorial to remember the lives of 3500 people including Budapest Jews. They were ordered to take off their shoes before being executed by the fanciest Arrow Cross militiamen during World War II. They were executed on the riverbank and their bodies were left to float downstream. Only their shoes were left behind.

Parliament

On our first day in Budapest we had a very nice and very knowledgable guide to take us all around the city and as the sun set we enjoyed seeing the city come alive in lights. From the impressive Parliament building to the Chain Bridge to the Fishermans Bastion, Budapest has a special feel at night. 

Fishermans Bastion

Chain Bridge 

The Green Bridge

Buda Castle

St Stevens

Beautiful Hungarian Folk Dance...lots of energy, the kind of music that gets you our of your chair.
We loved it! We are not so sure how they managed to keep those bottles on their heads while they spun around though...

We really enjoyed the wonderful traditional music.
This guy played the Cimbalom (kind of a hammered dulcimer) Blindfolded...really!

There seemed to be no end to the food we were served. What is here is our third course of a four course meal. All of that food is really for the two of us along with our guide....we did our best but for no lack of trying could not get through it.  The food was delicious!

Old Town

Matthias Church

The Great Market hall (Nagyvasarcsarnok.. no we can't pronounce that) is the largest and oldest indoor market in Budapest. It is at one end of the one mile long pedestrian shopping street and we started out at the Parliament at the other extreme end, so a good but cheerful walk for us. The building was built in 1897 and is very large indeed. It was badly damaged during both World Wars and was abandoned for a number of years following World War II. Today it houses over 10,000 square meters (that is 107,600 square feet) of shopping on three floors. The second floor is mostly local crafts, the ground floor is stuffed full of produce, meats, pastries, spices and so much more. The basement is full of butcher shops. We spent a bit of time here in the middle of the buzz of local people and tourists alike all searching for the deal.

This cafe was located in the hotel where we stayed. It is called the New York Cafe and claims to be the most beautiful cafe in the world, and it just might be. We had an afternoon coffee and some local sweets here while being entertained with live Hungarian music.